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Friday, March 16, 2012

Lobster Fest: Boathouse (Richmond)

The lobster fest was what lured both Len and I here. Let's not waste anytime and get straight into our 3 course meal. For starters, there were three choices: wild greens salad, Cesar salad and lobster bisque. Len went with the wild greens since he didn't want anything to heavy. The greens came looking fresh topped nicely with some Parmesan, dry berries and pine nuts, but sadly Len commented on how it was way too sour and the dried berries made it too sweet. To make things short, Len didn't like the salad that much and sweet and sour did not compliment each well.

As for me, I went with the tastiest dish: the lobster bisque. I came here on valentines day and I found the lobster bisque here delicious so of course I must order this soup again. It was really funny the way the served it though, they brought you the dish with a mini toasted sourdough and some lobster meat in the center, then they bring a small pitcher and poured the soup into the dish right in front of you. The first time they did this, they didn't bring the pitcher with the soup inside so I thought their version of the lobster bisque was just a dish with toasted bread and lobsters. Then they came shortly with the soups, my friends and I laughed it off. This time however, I found the soup quite salty versus the one I had last time. On the other hand, it was definitely very tasty, very "lobstery" and creamy. The lobster were really fresh and had a nice bounce to them.

I forgot to mention that prior to the appetizers, they did serve us sourdough bread with freshly whipped garlic butter, but as forgetful as I am, I obviously forgot to take a picture of it and devoured down the bread before I remembered again. As for the main dish I had: BC salmon topped with lobster thermidor with rice pilaf. The portion was quite large and I did not manage to lick the plate clean, especially with such a large serving of salmon fillet. I thought that the fish was overcooked because it was really dry and rough and there wasn't much taste to it except the taste from the grill. The lobster thermidor was mixed with some prawns, it was nice, fresh and yummy, but was not a kick in the mouth. Maybe the only thing that I can really compliment on this dish was the veggies, sauteed in garlic and they still had a nice crunch to them. Rice pilaf isn't my favorite, but I still finished most of it.

Len had the 7 ounce sirloin with the stuffed lobster tail. Len didn't comment on the lobster tail at all, so I guess it wasn't extremely poor tasting nor good. However, he praised on the steak. Len had a rare steak, and according to him it was made really really well, it was perfectly rare like he wanted it to be and the meat dissolved in his mouth. His jaws did not ache at all at the end of night from any chewing, thumbs up on this dish.

Lastly, who could miss out on dessert?! Len had the creme brulee and it was unfortunately too sweet for him, he has had better. I went with the mocha mud pie because this totally exploded in my mouth the last time I had it, so I must order it again as well. Len agreed that my dessert was way better. There was a noticeable difference in the ice cream layer though compared to the last time I had it, this night's mocha mud pie did not have the same fragrant espresso flavor, a bit weak. Despite the weak espresso flavor, I still enjoyed my dessert, the Oreo crust gave the whole cake a nice crisp and I just couldn't stop eating it till I realized that I was done and how full I was by the time nothing was left.

Boathouse is for sure a go to place if you want to eat good seafood, but the only problem is that they're not very consistent with their products. I liked the waiters there, they had tons of humor and patience in them and were very polite, but their service seemed a bit slow. I have heard from many people the boathouse down at English bay is "better" than than this one, so I'm hoping to give that one a try when I get the chance to.